US loses $40 bn yearly in China exports

China's retaliation to US tariffs cuts US exports to the country by almost a third, a study from IIF estimates.

The study by the the Institute of International Finance (IIF) for Bloomberg is presented in an article republished by news outlets including Treasury & Risk. It follows up on a previous report which concluded that US imports from China were indeed cut after new tariffs were imposed on the initiative of US president Donald Trump.

US lost most

The new report looks at the opposite flow, after China has retaliated with its own import tariff increases for about 900 categories of US goods. And it finds that the blow to US exports was way harder than that to China’s.

According to the study, more than $17 billion was lost in the period of July to October 2018, corresponding to $40 billion annually.

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”Evidence on the ground is grim”

At a hearing last Wednesday, US trade representative Robert Lighthizer met politicians who expressed complaints from constituents who have been affected by either US tariffs on Chinese imports or by China’s retaliation on US exports.

”Whatever your intentions were, I have to tell you the evidence on the ground is really grim,” said Stephanie Murphy, a Democrat from Florida, according to Bloomberg’s piece.

”I’ve had small-business owners in my community, in central Florida, break down when they talk to me about the impact that tariffs are having on the companies that they have spent a lifetime building.”